132 



abdomen ; and by the longer and more slender teeth of ihe anterior tibise. 

 Nothing of its habits is known to the writer, but they are probably nearly 

 or quite the same as those of the preceding species. 



Length of body, 28 mm.; of wing covers, 12 mm.; of wings, 24 mm. 



III. Grylus, Linnivus (1758). The Field and House Crickets. 

 To this genus be'ong those dark colored, thick-bodied crickets, mature 

 specimens of which are so abundant from late summer till after heavy 

 frosts, beneath logs, boards, stones, and, especially, beneath rails in the 

 corners of the old-fashioned and rapidly disappearing Virginia rail fences. 

 Three species of Gryllus are known to occur in the state. 



4. Gryllus abbreviatis, Serville. The Short-winged Field Cricket. 

 Acheta abbreviata, Harris, Ins. Inj. Veg., 1862, 152, fig. 69 . 



Rath von, U. S. Agr. Rep., 1862, 380, fig. 15 . 

 Thomas, Trans. 111. St. Ag. Soc, V, 1865, 442. 

 Walfh, Practical Entomologist, I, 1866, 126. 

 Gryllus abbreviatus Scudder, Bost. Jour. Nat. Hist., VII, 1862, 427. 

 Packard, Guide to Stud. Ins., 1883, 564. 

 Fernald, Orth. N. Eng., 1888, 15. 

 Comstock, Intr. to Entom , I, 1888, 121, fig. 108 a. 

 McNeill, Psyche, VI, 1891, 5. 

 This is the most common and familiar species of the genus occurring 

 in the state. The males have the wing, covers usually reaching to the 

 end of the abdomen, but those of the females are much shortened and 

 reach but little beyond its middle. The wings are sometimes wanting but 

 are usually present and much shorter than the wing covers. The oviposi- 

 tor is almost as long as the body, and the hind femora are exceedingly 

 thick and have a b^ick red spot at the base on the under side. 



Each of the authorities cited above, who says anything of the life his- 

 tory of this cricket states that the eggs are laid in the ground in autumn 

 and hatch the following summer, but the writer has, many times, taken the 

 half grown young from beneath logs in late autumn and in mid winter. 

 On such occasions they are usually found in a dormant condition, each one 

 at the bottom of a cone shaped cavity which it has formed for itself, and 

 which is very similar to the pits made in loose sand by the larva of the 

 ant lion, Myr meleon obsoletus, Sa.y. Many specimens which had evidently 

 moulted twi e were tak^-n thus on February 8th, 1890, and during the 

 three months just passed, (Oct., Nov., and Dec, 1891), the young have 



